GEN ST 298: Can You Have Your Attention Please?: Attention Reclamation and Practices to Thrive at and Beyond the University of Washington

Winter 2026, Tuesdays from 10:30 am - 12:20 pm, In-person, (2 Credits - C/NC) Elective
Open to all UW Seattle undergraduate students

Taught by: Ryan Burt, Director of Academic Support Programs and Megan Kennedy, Director of Resilience Lab

Digital technologies and social networks can be fun and creative, but many experts are raising concerns about their effects on our ability to think deeply, regulate emotions, and build community. 

This course empowers students to examine their own relationship with digital technology and to cultivate healthier, intentional attention habits, supported by insights from guest speakers in the arts, music, mindfulness, and athletics.

This class aims to empower you to think critically about your own relationship to digital technologies. One goal is to re-center our own attentional agency, establishing a healthier relationship with digital tech so we can thrive academically, socially and as an informed and engaged human. 

Students Who Take this Class Will:

• Understand research based framings of key concepts like attention, cognitive resources and attentional capacity 
• Explain how “attention economies” impact cognitive ability, social emotional well-being, and political discourse  
• Cultivate successful academic behaviors drawing on attentional research
• Develop intentional focused habits for listening and engaging in community on a variety of scales (personal, familial, national, etc.)
• Engage in practices to cultivate attentional capacity and awareness as they cultivate joy and well-being

More about this class:

• We will have amazing guest speakers talking about developing attention in relation to music, mindfulness and athletics. 

Questions? Email Ryan Burt (rburt@uw.edu) & Megan Kennedy (meganken@uw.edu)
 

Register here!